RFI: Border Community - Nathan Fake, James Holden, The MFA, Petter etc.

My biggest problem with this so far is the cover, really...

http://static.boomkat.com/images/356655/333.jpg

Does this dude *want* me to get an ophthalmic migraine looking at that?

Aye, the cover is a little... obnoxious. Well, the typeface is. Same on the rear tracklisting too.

Just about to go out for a bikeride with this in my ears. Anyone else listened yet? I fell in love with the opening track straight away, the rest is growing on me.

It was good, but I just really wanted to go back to listening to Diskjokke. Which is gonna be my problem with everything for the next few weeks, I suspect.

loved a remix of his that I heard last year (Mit - "Rauch"), I should check out the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Ya3g_TiPk

It was very Border Community, but a bit generic on first listen. I'll give it another go, but it didn't grab me like Nathan Fake does.

I never got on with Nathan Fake. Maybe I should try again.

i like the cover, but I like blurry text so I' a suckah

I'm a suckah

i can be a suckah for border community but this was pretty dull tbh. not bangin' or grindin' or squawkin' enough.

Anyone else listening to the new James Holden DJ Kicks release? Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn

So, I still agree with this...for the CD VERSION. DO NOT EVER BUY THE VINYL VERSION. It just came in the mail, and I am so, so SO disappointed. I knew it only had some of the tracks (it's a 2XLP, but even then it's length doesn't approach the CD version), but what I didn't realize is that most of the vinyl tracks are different mixes, and for some reason he decided to use mixes that are way worse and totally ruin everything. I'm just flabbergasted.

The Apparat one is coming in the mail, and if he ruined his tracks in a similar way (compared to the digital release I heard) I am going to shit my pants in the bad way

Is there a reason to even get the vinyl versions? Seems like they'd be decent unmixed, but a mixed 12" just sounds weird. Wouldn't flipping the record kind of kill it?

i assume they're unmixed?

http://www.junodownload.com/products/dj-kicks-dj-mix/1579466-02/

fully mixed version: £2 for the .wavs.

That's got to be good news for the person that bought the vinyls but still wants the full mix.

Holden's remix of The Sky Was Pink still pretty damn amazing

i guess Nathan Fake has a new album coming out
http://soundcloud.com/border-community/icenistrings

Yup, was listening to that on Spotify a bit

So the new Nathan Fake is good then? I'd always been a bit meh on the prospect of his albums but this looks like it could be decent?

http://www.factmag.com/2012/08/16/nathan-fake-steam-days/

it's aight

oh wait i wrote that review, lol

worth hearing, not especially wow, prob his best album yet but i wouldn't say it's a must-hear, just quite good

two word summary of your review, there? :)

I was more excited about the prospect of new James Holden until I heard this, which is nice enough but feels a bit too wonky.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFTXLT8V1UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFTXLT8V1UM

(if someone could explain to me what I'm doing wrong with pasting a Youtube link that would be fab)

The album any good?

Yes! Absolutely loving The Inheritors. Really digging the whole strange earthy vibe to it.

MMHM VERY GOOD. It makes me want to read the book after which it is named... Has anyone read it?

I want this album.

his recent RA mix is great - "a companion piece to the album" he says
http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=367

Blackpool Late Eighties is amazing.

he looks like shit in the new edition of mojo.
bloke seriously needs to get some proper food and sleep.

I like this record, I like the general pagan vibe to it. Quite a lumpy approach to rhythm, reminds me a bit of the some of the flirtations with dance by some of the bands at the noisier end of the indie spectrum (Fuck Buffoons, Astral Social Club... one song in particular sounds quite a bit like Atlas by Battles).

Oh, it's the Caterpillar's Intervention that's reminding me of Atlas.

It's the same schaffely glitter-stomp with the guitar strings being picked at just so.

Is it out yet? I didn't really get on with the last one but he's one of those producers I'm prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to on every release.

Out yesterday.

I've kind of avoided him until now as I've not been super impressed by Border Community in general, but he's a name that gets dropped so often by so many musicians I love, and the pre-release talk about this seemed like it'd be up my alley, so I picked it up.

He was born in (presumably) the same hospital as me, three weeks after me. Which is odd. If not remarkable.

I've not been super impressed by Border Community in general

Out of everything else I've heard of theirs, Holkham Drones by Luke Abbott is top quality stuff imo.

I find myself periodically surprised that Border Community is still a going concern, they just feel so of their time (ie 2005).

Aye, Holkham Drones was my favourite.

I fuck with this new Holden album. Damn.

This is absolutely perfect when you were out until 2am and need to drift off into the atmosphere for 75 minutes the next lunchtime.

i don't know, i wanted to like this but gave it a couple of spins yesterday and wasn't feeling it. i was in a bit of a mood anyway but it just made me tetchier. oddly claustraphobic. i'll give it another go when i'm on better terms with myself. i did really like 'blackpool late eighties' tho.

A glowing review from Sherburne in Spin:
http://www.spin.com/articles/James-holden-dance-tracks-of-the-week-james-holden-border-community-john-cage-dj-kicks/

First listen didn't strike me either but it's really, really growing. Can't wait to listen to it on Dartmoor.

People need to talk about this record more.

I didn't even know who James Holden was a week ago. Shows you how much I keep up with things. But a friend on facebook, generally a detroit techno/electro/minimal/coldwave type of guy, posted about it the other day effusively, so I checked it out. Heard a few minutes and was immediately taken. Bought both LPs off iTunes and have been listening nonstop for a few days now.

Sherbourne's article is really otm. For the last few years I've been trying to pay more attention to a lot of stuff that's going and and while I'm generally excited by much of it, not that much really sticks with me. This new record seems to draw from/share so many current influences/sounds, but work with them without any need to shoehorn himself into a particular genre. Electro-acoustic ambient stuff with krautrock rhythms giving away to triumphant horn parts, cosmic arpeggiating synths, minimal influences, maximal influences, Aphexy atmospheres, one song that sounds just like Popol Vuh, a bit of hauntology etc. Without ever being afraid of a catchy melody, sometimes as the dominant part of a track, sometimes more subtly.

I think I especially appreciate that. In a year or two where a lot of the most interesting sounding stuff has come from these neo-industrial/post-punk influenced acts which sound great but can get a bit overwrought and silly in their "darkness", Holden marries those sounds with epic melodicism.

I'm really into this album right now and I think it's really special, and think Sherbourne nailed it.

probably record of the year for me. i was so overwhelmed by it that i was compelled to write mr. holden a gushing fan boy email.

xpost - I got into him around the time when Kreucht and Fleucht, "Cosmic Sandwich" and all that was big. You should check out his remix of Andre Kraml's "Safari" off of Fleucht.

https://soundcloud.com/thaliadavies/safari-andre-kraml-james

He's been off my radar for a while, I'm excited to hear this new thing. The track linked in that review sounds really nice.

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/07/03/holden-the-inheritors/

very intrigued to hear this! I love his Balance mix and various singles. His journey from progressive house to this more abstract style is pretty cool; his records just kept getting dirtier and more blown out. I remember one interview from years ago where he said his passion was really postrock/krautrock etc but iirc he just got sucked into dance music production and djjing with the success of his early singles (at least one of which he produced using only tracker software). It kind of bummed me out at the time, cuz i wanted him to keep doing like britney spears remixes and not "evolve" into some middlebrow idm-ish artist. But in hindsight who wouldn't want to hear him stretch out and get all abstract? dude does amazing sound design, i would listen to his multi dimensional sound sculptures in any style.